Dish Upgrade

We have always purchased and manually set up the same antenna mounted at home when RVing, been doing it for over a couple of decades with both Directv and Dish. Took longer to get antenna out of basement storage and unravel coax than actually locking in satellites, all in all maybe 10 minutes to access all the channels on two vip receivers without restrictions or delay.

Our current rig is a class a and the previous owner threw in a couple of King tailgator pro 2 domes, one for Dish and the other for Directv. Having heard generally bad things about automated sat. acquiring domes I continued to bring along our manually set up antenna. Heard domes were slow and often had problems attaining all satellites among other minor issues.

Never worried about my manual satellite setup at a campground, didn't want our King tailgator growing legs and walking off. I purchased a roof mount that allowed easy removal of dome should trees or other obstruction require repositioning to acquire satellites. Saving space on storing dome, tripod, and excess coax were other positives to look forward to with roof mounted system.

To my surprise the King tailgator has performed flawlessly, easily attaining satellites without issue, even when RVing in a dense ponderosa pine forest. Have never had a reason to unclip from roof mount and reposition, it is always ready to go by the time we finish setting up rig upon arrival. Like any dome it is slower than residential antenna, couple of seconds if channel is on another satellite.

Can't speak on any other brand of automated satellite acquiring domes, again I never thought they were reliable enough to purchase from all that I've heard. We primarily do most of our RVing in the mountain west and SW regions of the country and never had reason to use eastern arc, we are satisfied with King tailgator performance and can always use manual setup if needed for eastern arc.

2112 wrote:


Regardless, unless someone can point me to a better opinion I'll pull the trigger on the X2. I'm looking for auto setup with 2 tv capability. Eastern arc is a bonus but not required, or should it be?

Thanks

Having both eastern and western arc capabilities expands your aiming options significantly if you often use sites with much tree cover. Having both arcs available has meant we've been on a couple of hundred different sites since 2010 and have never not had sat signals available from one arc or the other.

goducks10 wrote:
I've had a Pathway X2 for 7+ years. It works great but it's big and sometimes awkward. In the time we've owned it I bet I could count on one hand how many other X2's we've seen. When it finally does quit working I'll be going to a smaller satellite.

Thanks for the testimonial. Your last sentence spoke volumes to me. I can see it being awkward as well. Getting it in and out of the basement looks to be a chore.

Maybe I need to rethink this. I got to the point to where I hate pulling out the MP1. The X2 may suffer the same

I've had a Pathway X2 for 7+ years. It works great but it's big and sometimes awkward. In the time we've owned it I bet I could count on one hand how many other X2's we've seen. When it finally does quit working I'll be going to a smaller satellite.

LouLawrence wrote:
The MP1 is not SD only with Dish Network.

That's probably true. My 322 receiver dictates I'm watching SD.

The Pathway X2 is MUCH larger than the MP1 but that's also one of the reasons it's such a good choice.

I didn't realize how big it is until I took a tape measure to my basement. I can get it in but it's going to eat up some storage real estate. We can live with that. We haven't used the guest house (tent, sleeping bag and air mattress) in some time so that can go to free up space.

Regardless, unless someone can point me to a better opinion I'll pull the trigger on the X2. I'm looking for auto setup with 2 tv capability. Eastern arc is a bonus but not required, or should it be?

Thanks

The MP1 is not SD only with Dish Network.
The Pathway X2 is MUCH larger than the MP1 but that's also one of the reasons it's such a good choice.
If you plan to hook up 2 receivers, one will be fully functional and the 2nd will be a slave being able to only watch channels that are coming from the same satellite the 1st receiver is using.

I wasn't thinking about size. I need to make sure I can store it before I squeeze the trigger

Thanks

I've had my Pathway X2 since 2011 and used it from Halifax NS to San Diego CA. It's been through many thunder storms, a few snow storms, a hail storm in Del Rio TX, and still works like new. Yes it's bigger to store but worth every bit of space. There is no better portable antenna for DISH Network. Yes you can mount it on plywood. The King Tailgater is not even close in durability and the ability to receive the full DISH Eastern Arc AND Western Arc satellite groups.

The Pathway X2 is the better choice since it receives both the western arc satellites and the full set of eastern arc sats. While nothing electro-mechanical is infallible, I see very few complaints about the X2 in the various RV forums I frequent. The biggest complaint seems to be that the larger size takes up a little more storage space than the others. Given that the larger dish means less rain fade and stronger signals, I think that's a fair trade off. The only issue I've ever been asked to fix related to an X2 was simply a failed coax connector, a 5 minute fix.